This invention relates to surgical orthopedic garments and more particularly to improvements in such garments designed to provide support for the relief of back problems and also abdominal support.
Back problems, for a variety of reasons, affect persons of all ages for which the use of some form of a support garment is a common expedient. One of the well known garments for this purpose is the wrap-around corset of a non-flexible material provided with a plurality of fixed stays, adjustment for fit by an arrangement of laces, straps and buckles and, generally, in garments for women, with garters for attachment to their hose. Notwithstanding the support provided by the corset form this type of garment has certain disadvantages in that there is no defined waistband or crotch so that even with the use of garters, the garment tends to ride up on the torso and the upper ends of the stays frequently become uncomfortable at the waist area.
Another type of garment in this class is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,730 in the form and style of a panty girdle with defined leg openings, a fixed crotch portion and fabricated from a plurality of elastic bands arranged in a variety of angular relationships to provide a tight fitting garment for the support intended. And in U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,433, there is disclosed a combination of a panty girdle and corset where there is a panty girdle type tubular body of elastic material having a crotch portion and defined leg openings together with front and back overlying panels of non-elastic material. This garment is provided with fixed encased stays as with a corset construction and also utilizes straps and buckles for tightening and adjustment. With such types of garments, it has been my observation that those with buckles and straps, where the ends often come loose from keeper loops, do not fit smoothly under outer wear and thus are unsuitable for wear with panty hose that most women use. Accordingly, it is one of the important objects of this invention to provide a surgical orthopedic support garment that overcomes such disadvantages noted and others as will appear.
It is another object herein to provide a support garment of the above class that is simple and easy to don and remove, is comfortable to wear and is highly efficient for its intended purpose.
More particularly, it is an object herein to provide a garment as characterized which is generally tubular in configuration for ease in donning and removing, has support elements in the back and abdominal areas, a fastenable strap for forming a crotch portion and leg openings after donning to keep the garment in a comfortable position and includes adjustment tabs that present no loose ends and require no buckles.
Still another object is to provide a garment of the class described that includes encased support stays in the back portion which is designed to removably receive additional stays to augment the support capability of the encased stays, if needed or desired.
A further object is to provide a garment as characterized that is preferably made with no parts having a magnetic influence so as to avoid any possibility of intereference with a pacemaker or the like that might be in use by a wearer.